


the cradle of an elegy

by Dubiousculturalartifact (222Ravens)



Series: Project Padmé [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe-Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Padmé Amidala Lives, past anakin/padme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:55:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22105936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/222Ravens/pseuds/Dubiousculturalartifact
Summary: Caution is the better part of valour, still.
Series: Project Padmé [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1597708
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	the cradle of an elegy

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this in a single sitting. Depending on my muse, it’s either going to be a one-shot, or I’ll keep going with the series, and expand on this AU. 
> 
> It’ll likely be a group of short chapters and character study moments, rather than a more traditional narrative format, and potentially non-linear, if I get lazy about it. The tags (including relationship tags, wink wink) will change accordingly, if so.
> 
> EDIT:  
> okay heck i'm gonna do it, it's gonna be a BIG FIC, but realistically it will probably take a couple months before I'm in a spot where I wanna publish stuff, but stay tuned for what will tentatively be called Codename: Starbird!

This is the one where Padmé Amidala lives.

She doesn’t let herself slip away, into something that is more metaphor than person, fading with the setting sun of liberty. She is a Senator, and was a Queen long before that, and for all of her silks she has worn, there is iron in her core.  
  
Caution is the better part of valour, still. Padmé knows the Republic is falling, knows that the fight will be far longer than any one final stand. There are her children to think about, besides, if the galaxy was not sufficient reason, itself.  
  
She is grieving, maybe even angry in her loss. For the life she had lived, for the man she had thought she loved despite every warning sign she had let herself ignore. For the Jedi, and every innocent who has perished, and still will.  
  
One life will get a second purpose, at the least. Cordé, who had died for her once, will do so again. She had wanted to bury her properly, when she had gone, but a handmaiden is always needed. The custom exists for a reason. Naboo had an ugly history before it found its way to peace, and some things were kept, and some traditions held on, even when they were thought unneeded.  
  
Cordé knew the risks, knew the cost, and asked for it. Padmé had mourned her at the time, and would mourn her again, but for now, she sat in a hidden chamber, her two children at her breasts, and directed the body of her friend and former handmaiden, to be removed from cryo-storage.  
  
The funeral is public, as lavish and open as anything can be in these times. Cordé has a dress of silks, her stomach padded like she was with child yet, and flowers all around, and so much _light,_ even in darkness such as this. A jabor snippet talisman rests in Cordé’s hands-there is more than one thing Padmé is letting herself bury, today.  
  
Padmé hides herself in the crowd, and watches, and no one notices her at all. If their eyes are drawn to her at all, it is to the two children in a sling. People in the crowd look at them, the way that any stranger shows kindness to the innocent, revelling for a small moment, in seeing new life while faced with stark reminders of death.  
  
But herself? No one looks at her at all, and that is how she knows it is possible. Knows that she will keep both of her children by her side, however she can. That if she cannot be their mother she can still be their handmaiden, as Bail and Brea become their parents in every other way.  
  
Anakin will not find her, he lost any claim on her mind and heart, and there is too much blood of children on his hands. Her enemies will not find her, and she has scarce few friends she will trust with such a secret, or with theirs.  
  
They are twins, and she had never told him, when the medical droid had revealed that early on, wanted it to be a surprise for him, a gift.  
  
The past tense of surprise, someone told her once, is ‘secret’ _,_ and a secret it will stay.  
  
But they will live, and they will grow, and she will live on, too. The galaxy needs her. Her children need her, and Padmé needs this, herself. To live, and serve, and love, as she was always born to do, and to pass on that legacy of honourable power and grace, onto her children. To uphold her part in fighting for a future, for them all.  
  
Some would call it a risk, a gamble. But Padmé isn’t worried at all, not really.  
  
She knows everything there is to know about hiding in plain sight. 


End file.
